Uruguay: Proposal for Leadership

For the last twelve years, Uruguay has been
governed by a succession of nine-man National Councils, in which four
members of the majority party take annual turns as the country's
nominal President. When the presidency came around to Washington
Beltrán.* 51, a Blanco Party leader and onetime editor of Montevideo's
daily El Pais, he went on TV with a drastic proposal: abolish the
Swiss-style council and return posthaste to a single, strong President.
Said Beltrán: "If the government is required to govern, it must be
provided with the means to do so."